


Chirps and Sighs

by VeniVediVici



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-10
Updated: 2013-08-10
Packaged: 2017-12-23 01:27:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/920386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VeniVediVici/pseuds/VeniVediVici
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A prompt filled on tumblr. Archie muses on the missed relationship between him and Ruby.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Chirps and Sighs

**Author's Note:**

  * For [gingerwhovianrobotskeleton](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gingerwhovianrobotskeleton/gifts).



He should have seen this coming. He was just a lowly cricket-turned-human; she was a goddess who turned into something amazing by the light of the moon. How could she ever want him? 

No, it was all about the womanizer of a mad doctor who’d brought two men back to life with no regard to how they felt about it once they realized what they’d become. She’d somehow fallen in love with that man and out of love with him. With only the company of a dog for twenty-eight years, and the years before that he’d spent with his parents and as a cricket, he supposed he didn’t have much knowledge in the way of women, but this? Condemned to watch from afar as she took the arm of the doctor and sauntered down the street, carefree and out of danger from Cora and her like; it seemed like everyone had at least one person they cared about and vice versa. Pongo was a good dog and a loyal friend, Jiminy couldn’t deny him that, but it was hard to have a proper conversation with someone who couldn’t talk back. 

Who would counsel the psychiatrist? It was madness, the notion that anyone other than Cursed Ruby would ever see the good in a man who had done the unthinkable and ran away from a dying man to kill himself, all the while, drinking as heavily as he possibly could. Jiminy was the first person to give anyone the benefit of the doubt—Regina was a prime example of someone who just needed the chance to show how far she’d come—but then again, Regina hadn’t stolen his love from him. Wait a moment, stolen his love? What was he, a nine-year-old boy angry at another boy for stealing his favorite toy? 

No, they were all grown adults here, but the sting of having Ruby leave his comfort and stability for a reckless man still hurt bitterly. Maybe it was because they both had a past steeped in murder and deep pain, but who in this town hadn’t experienced their fair share of pain and suffering? All he’d wanted was a chance to show her how steady as the river he was, not some wild stream running through the woods with abandon. “Oh, hey Archie, how’s it going?” Ruby asks him, smiling wildly and slightly out of breath. She’s dressed to impress. Victor, that is. “Fine, Ruby. Just fine.”


End file.
